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Although baradium was described as a "synthetic element",[2] it may have existed in some form in naturally-occurring lodes, as quantities of it were discovered on Duro and Anobis after the Yuuzhan Vong War[3]; these may possibly have been industrial by-products, however. During the Republic Dark Age, the surface of Chelloa contained vast deposits of baradium which could be tapped by exploding the ground.[4]

When detonated, a baradium weapon produced an incandescent sphere of energy, normally vaporizing everything within it.[source?] The destructive force was described as a fusion reaction,[5] and the majority of the energy produced was released as heat.[2] A second component of a baradium explosion was a particle field, which formed the outer surface of the blast sphere, and which was sustained by the energy of the explosion inside: this had the useful effect of containing the destructive effect within a relatively precise perimeter.[2] But although baradium was a very potent explosive, it was also costly to process,[source?] and extremely unstable: accidental detonation could be triggered by careless use, and would have a devastating effect.[2] These factors placed important limits on the employment of baradium munitions. Baradium also caused poisoning after detonation.[6]

Probably the best-known and most widespread form of baradium charge was a type known as a thermal detonator. The standard thermal detonators used by the Imperial Army had a five-meter blast radius, and could penetrate up to two meters of permacite, but they were designed to be placed manually against hardened targets as petards, rather than lobbed as grenades or mortar rounds.[2] They were issued to Imperial Combat Engineers,[2] and to stormtroopers.[5]

Other thermal detonators were used by bounty hunters had a twenty-meter radius,[5] and some could vaporize everything up to one hundred meters away.[source?] These were sometimes lobbed as grenades,[source?] or used as suicide weapons by terrorists.[7] The ostentatious destructive potential of larger thermal detonators is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that a single Class-A thermal detonator, detonating in the basement, brought down Xizor's Palace, one of the largest buildings on Coruscant.[8]

A more specialized form of baradium weapon was the seismic charge, in which the baradium was combined with collapsium. Rather than a spherical blast-radius, the destructive power of a seismic charge was constrained into a narrow plane, producing a violent shearing effect through anything in the path of the blast.[12]

In an attempt to counteract the instability of baradium-based thermal detonators, the Alliance to Restore the Republic developed the Thermal well, which combined baradium with ytterbium, to produce a much more stable explosive compound. This burned at several thousand degrees Celsius, and was capable of melting most objects within its blast radius.[13]

Lastly, while baradium was normally used as an explosive, depleted baradium was used instead to make dense, small-caliber bullets. The YVH series could carry a depleted-baradium pellet launcher capable of shredding yorik coral.[10]

Baradium's destructive power meant that thermal detonators were banned by the Old Republic,[source?] and more powerful models remained illegal under the Galactic Empire,[5] while unauthorized possession of a thermal detonator was now punishable by death.[2] But while a small baradium charge was issued as standard to stormtroopers, the cost of production and the problems involved in handling the material also meant that its use was limited, even within the massive military-industrial complex of the Imperial forces.[2]

These limits did not completely prohibit the use of baradium weapons, however. Even under the Old Republic, thermal detonators were popular with bounty hunters and other fringe elements.[5] During the Republic Dark Age, baradium was widely sought by Sith Lords like Daiman and Odion for their war effort against the Republic and the Jedi. In 1032 BBY, a Jedi team under Vannar Treece raided Chelloa to disrupt Daiman's baradium supply line. During the fighting, Odion's forces deployed a massive kinetic corruptor which harnessed the baradium by exploding a chunk of the landscape and killing many of the combatants.[4]

The Yuuzhan Vong War saw the one recorded use of a baradium missile, by the Myrkr strike team. The primary plan of the strike team's mission was built around this weapon, which was to be used to destroy the cloning facility creating the voxyn at Myrkr. In the event, it was fired instead against a Yuuzhan Vongcruiser, completely obliterating it even though it exploded half a kilometer from the warship's hull.[10]